1639.

banished by the policy of their sister colonies. CHAP. II While the puritans of New England were employed in coercing conformity to their par ticular tenets, Virginia retaliated on them by passing severe laws affecting puritans, which induced persons of that persuasion to take refuge in Maryland, where all were permitted to pursue unmolested, the form of worship dictated by conscience.

composed

sentatives.

An increase of population and extended set- Assembly tlements produced their certain consequence. of repre The exercise of the sovereign power by the people themselves became intolerably burdensome, and the third assembly, which was convened in 1639, passed an act "for establishing the house of assembly." This act declared that those who should be elected in pursuance of writs issued should be called burgesses, and should supply the place of freemen who chose them, in the same manner as the representatives in the parliament of England; and with those called by special writ, together with the governor and secretary, should constitute the general assembly; but the two branches of the legislature were to sit in the same chamber. In 1650 this regulation was changed. An act Divided was then passed declaring, that those who were branches. called by special writ should form the upper house, that those who were chosen by the hundreds should compose the lower house, and that bills which should be assented to by both

into two

CHAP.П. branches of the legislature and by the governor 1650. should be deemed the laws of the province.

The most perfect harmony subsisted between the proprietary and the people; and Maryland, attentive to its own affairs, remained, without any other interruption than one Indian war, which terminated in the submission of the natives, in a state of increasing prosperity until the civil war broke out in England. This government, like that of Virginia, was attached to the royal cause; but Clayborne, who took part with the parliament, found means to intrigue among the people, and, in the beginning of the year 1645, to raise an insurrection in the province. Calvert the governor was obliged to fly to Virginia for protection, and the insurgents seized the reins of government. It was not until August in the subsequent year that the revolt was suppressed and tranquillity restored. An act of general pardon and oblivion was passed, from the benefits of which only a few leading characters were excepted; but this, like most other insurrections, produced additional burdens on the people which did not so soon pass away. A duty for seven years, of ten shillings on every hundred weight of tobacco exported in Dutch bottoms, was granted to the proprietary, the one half of which was expressly appropriated to satisfy claims produced by the recovery and defence of the province.

proceedings.

The repose of Maryland was soon disturbed CHAP. IL by the superintending care of parliament. In 1651. September, commissioners were appointed "for Tyrannical reducing and governing the colonies within the bay of Chessapeake." Among them was Clayborne, the evil genius of the colony. As the proprietor had acknowledged and submitted to the authority of parliament, he was permitted to retain his station and to govern as formerly, although in the name of the keepers of the liberties of England. It was, however, impossible that he could long retain the quiet possession of actual authority. The distractions of England, having found their way into Maryland, divided the colonists; and the commissioners supported with their countenance the faction opposed to the established government. The contentions generated by such a state of things, at length, broke out into civil war, which terminated in the defeat of the governor and the roman catholics. A new assembly was now convened, which being entirely under the influence of the victorious party, passed an act declaring, that none who professed the popish religion could be protected in the province by the laws; that such as profess faith in God by Jesus Christ, although dissenting from the doctrine and discipline publicly held forth, should not be restrained from the exercise of their religion, provided such liberty was not extended to popery, or prelacy, or to

CHAP. I. such as, under the profession of Christ, prac1651. tised licentiousness. Other laws in the same

spirit were enacted, and a persecution commenced against the quakers, as well as those guilty of popery and prelacy. A scene of revolutionary turbulence ensued, in the course of which the upper house was resolved to be useless, which continued until the restoration; when Philip Calvert was appointed governor, by lord Baltimore, and the ancient order of things restored. Notwithstanding the commotions which had agitated the colony for a few years past, it had greatly flourished, and at the restoration its population was estimated at twelve thousand souls.

Robertson....Chalmer....Stith....Beverly....L'Escarbot.

CHAPTER III.

First ineffectual attempts of the Plymouth company to settle the country....Settlements at New Plymouth.... Sir Henry Rosewell and company....New charter....Settlement of the country vigorously prosecuted....Government transferred to the colonists....Boston founded.... Religious intolerance....General court established.... Commission granted by the crown for the government of the plantations....Contests with the French colony of Acadié....Hugh Peters....Henry Vane....Mrs. Hutchinson and the antinomians....Maine granted to Gorges.... Quo warranto against the patent of the colony....Religious dissensions....Providence settled....Rhode Island settled....Connecticut settled.... War with the Piquods.... New Haven settled.

tual attempts

mouth com

the country.

April.

WE have seen with what slow and difficult First ineffecsteps the first or southern colony, although sup- of the Plyported by individuals of great wealth and in-pany to settle fluence in the nation, advanced to a firm and secure establishment. The company for founding the second or northern colony, to which it 1606. will be recollected a charter was at the same time granted, and which was composed of gentlemen residing in Plymouth and other parts of the west of England, was less wealthy, and possessed fewer resources for the establishment of distant and expensive settlements than the first company, which resided in the capital. Their efforts were consequently more feeble,